This was the seventh time in as many years that the Republicans in the House proposed a constitutional amendment to make it more difficult to pass tax increases. The measure would change the required vote for a tax increase from a simple majority to two-thirds of each body. Progressives complained that this would leave future Congresses no choice but to cut government programs, because such cuts would still require only a simple majority to pass. A constitutional amendment must receive a twothirds vote in each house of Congress to pass. Though a majority of the House favored this constitutional amendment, 227- 178, this vote was still 43 short of the necessary two-thirds. The vote therefore failed, and the amendment was shelved for another year.